The road from Skibbereen takes you past beautiful Lough Ine, a saltwater lake in a nature reserve in a deep valley with vaulting trees. Rath Hill, near Baltimore, a two-storey stone cottage, is less than a mile off the main road, yet feels wonderfully isolated. The last bit of road was built by the woman who lives here to provide access to her hilly hideaway.
The three-bedroom cottage on about one-and-a-half-acres is for sale through Charles McCarthy of Skibbereen for £120,000. Restored in traditional style, it has a good-sized kitchen, a timber-ceilinged sittingroom with an open fireplace where branches crackle brightly on this misty day, and upstairs, three bedrooms, also with timber ceilings and tongue and groove floors. The house was reroofed in 1978, and the stonework exposed at that point.
There is electricity, and a septic tank, but no bathroom. There is a water supply tank on the grounds, but a well must still be bored to provide running water.
Its most dramatic feature is the view from behind the house down the valley. On a clear day, you can see all the way to Bantry, says its owner, and she enjoys "excruciatingly beautiful sunsets". There is a stand of mature trees to one side of the house, and on the other, a large rock into which she is building steps to provide a sort of crow's nest lookout. Knockanoulty, Baltimore, the home of a former Dutch ambassador, also has a wonderful view. This property, which is on the market for £230,000 through Charles McCarthy, has a beautifully tended garden, and a view from a terrace, that runs along the back of the house, of Sherkin Island, Mount Gabriel, and Baltimore.
The 2,200 sq ft bungalow is 20 years old, and "very efficient" according to its owner. It has a livingroom, diningroom with patio doors to the rear terrace, a Gaggenau fitted kitchen with hob, breakfast bar, good eating area and a huge utility room in a converted garage that also has kitchen facilities. The house has five bedrooms, all with fitted cupboards, one of which is used as a study. The main bedroom has a dressingroom.
The house is furnished with beautiful furniture from countries where its owner lived. Some of it, like the lovely Mexican diningroom suite, might be available for sale if prospective buyers want to negotiate. Outside the house, there is a double garage.
At the other end of the scale is Drisheen, a derelict two-storey house on three-quarters of an acre which Charles McCarthy has on his books for £50,000. South-facing, and standing on a little rise, with a view of rolling hills, it has a paddock and orchard and lots of mature trees. It is about half a mile from Skibbereen Golf Club, and just three miles from Skibbereen, off the road to Baltimore.
West Cork is synonymous in many people's minds with "expensive holiday homes". For years, of course, it has been the favoured holiday hideout for many well-known English people, from politicians to writers to movie stars. But while it is true that prices here can be very high, it is still possible to find properties from around £40,000 to £50,000.
This is pretty much the basic cost of something remote and derelict near the coast, say agents like Charles McCarthy, although you will get little enough for that. Yet around £100,000 will probably buy you something pretty habitable that you could do up over time. And you have a good chance of getting planning permission, says McCarthy, if your refurbishment plans keep to the original style of the house. Just before we arrive in his office, an English couple has been negotiating to buy a property in Union Hall for £80,000 that they could live in as they refurbish.
You might also consider looking for a site: McCarthy recently sold a one-acre site with planning permission near the sea for £75,000. But he believes you could get a half-acre site in a non-contentious area, subject to planning permission, for £26,000. Sherry FitzGerald O'Neill in Skibbereen also has a site with an old ruin on about an acre with sea frontage on Dunmanus Harbour for £45,000.
McCarthy points to a new and interesting trend - the increased arrival of Dubliners on the West Cork market, looking not just for holiday homes, but to relocate permanently. He reports that a good few people from places like Ballymun have moved down with their young families to settle in the area. "There's a huge amount of people from Dublin looking," he says, both people who want a house as a second home, possibly with a view to retiring, cashing in on Dublin prices - and young families resettling here. "It works very well if families arrive before children are 12 or 13."
People are always "discovering" West Cork: in the 1960s, it was Germans and other continentals, who came here to live an "alternative" lifestyle. Some stayed and integrated, many left, says McCarthy - but through it all, English people and Americans kept on buying holiday and permanent homes. "We're delighted to see them coming," he says, talking of the new Dublin invasion, and it seems true that people aren't considered "blow-ins" in bustling Skibbereen, with its pretty painted houses, and the necklace of West Cork towns - Union Hall, Castletownshend, Baltimore, Roscarbery, Glandore, Schull - that surround it. Like Connemara, West Cork has a welcoming cosmopolitan air. Old Bailey lawyers, top doctors from England, Ireland and America, and well-known faces rub shoulders happily with resettling Dubs.
There have been no large-scale tax-driven seaside developments in this part of west Cork. There have been some small scale projects like Cuan Dor Haven in Glandore, a scheme of 12 four-bed homes that cost £280,000. They have all been bought by Irish people, and McCarthy has two left for sale.
But the dream of finding a derelict house to do up yourself persists. Agent John Cross, whose office is just outside Baltimore, says that every second person coming to see him is looking for this kind of property. Despite high prices, potential buyers may be inspired by the many people who have lived out the dream, restoring homes over years.
